Urgent Care

OCULAR Emergencies

True medical eye emergencies are our utmost highest priority as an eye care practice. Injury to the eye by trauma, foreign body or chemicals requires the prompt and expert attention that our office delivers. Patients are encouraged during normal business hours to get to the office as soon as possible. If you call ahead, we will prepare for your arrival. After business hours, at least one of our doctors is on call twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Our after-hours emergency phone number is:

401-400-1170

Eye infections, styes, itchy, runny, red, watery eyes and the like are truly eye problems that fall within realm of your eye doctor’s services. We are best educated and equipped to accurately diagnose and treat these common eye problems. It is for this reason that we encourage you, whenever possible, to consult with us, rather than an emergency room or your primary care physician. We do realize and recognize that many health plans require the general practitioner (GP) to be the “gate keeper”. Many times simply a call into you family doctor, explaining the nature of your dilemma and stating that you wish to see your eye care specialist is all that is necessary.

The symptoms of “spots” in your vision, “flashes and floaters”, and visual blackouts do require prompt ophthalmic evaluation. Patient’s experiencing these symptoms are encouraged to call our office immediately, so that we can best evaluate the cause of your symptoms. The sooner your condition is diagnosed and treated by the appropriate provider, the less eventful is its resolution and the better the outcome.

Eyewear and Contact Lens Emergencies

Of course, the old adage, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”, applies here. We realize that for logistical and financial reasons, all patients do not always have a backup up-to-date pair of eyeglasses or back-up contact lenses. However, we will always do our best to see patients who are experiencing a visual problem due to the lack of performance of the eye hardware or contact lenses. Please make this point clear to our Patient Care Coordinator when you call for an appointment. We would be happy to arrange to see you before office hours begin in the morning, during our lunch break or at the conclusion of office hours, that particular day.

We generally have hundreds, if not thousands, of contact lenses in stock in our office and our optical department is capable of generating new eyeglasses in less than an hour for most types of single vision prescriptions.

If you are having an eye emergency and our office is open, please call or come in to be seen by a doctor. If you have an emergency after-hours, please call our emergency line or visit your local ER.